About six models, two male and four female, strut into the venue, a roomy warehouse with nothing but a table where three members of the casting team are seated. They are dressed in mostly black head toe; a vest, skinny pants, boots for men and heels for women. As they parade themselves, with an ordinary casting session on their mind, one of the members of the casting team, choreographer Bienco Matrix asks them to take off their shoes. That’s when things switch to unique.
He then goes ahead to ask them to express themselves with their bodies, something that’s hard to execute even for us ‘non-models’. During the next few minutes, the models who weren’t prepared for this kind of casting session are taken through awkward body positions and movements. A few of them are asked random questions while others aren’t. It’s a visibly unique experience for the group. The team jots down notes, during the session, probably making their possible choices. Dozens of other hopefuls line up outside waiting for their turn.
So, what’s the casting team looking for selecting 45 models out of over 100 hopefuls?
“We’re not looking for a model, but a ‘great character’. This session is helping us push that character out of them. Unfortunately only a handful have what we’re looking,” Matrix explains.
The trio is casting models for the first of its kind dance-fashion-theatre show, ‘Breaking Androgynous’ to be held on Saturday 22nd September in Jinja town at Kimaka Amber Court. Models need to have all the qualities of a good model, actor and dancer. “A good model should be able to turn into any character and be anything,” adds Nabaggala Lillian Maximillian, a professional dancer and one third of the casting trio.
After the intense session, Irene Tushabe, 23, a secondary school teacher and part time model describes her the experience as “scary considering that I haven’t attended many castings.” “I’m however confident that I did a good job in there,” she adds. Allan Kiremerwa, who has more experience than the rest admits that “for the first time I’ve been challenged.” “It has been a different and nice experience,” he notes.
Gilbert Byamugisha, 23, an actor and dancer has a different opinion from his colleagues. “It was fun, as a model and actor, this was so natural. I’m confident I got this,” he shares joyfully. The student of Food Safety management is one of the few that might land a post in the highly coveted show.
According to Buyi Phillipu, the creative director of Kkoolo, “Breaking androgynous” is a storytelling show which will mix different forms of art to explore gender, culture and identity as young people engage in co-productive activities that encourage social inclusion and community cohesion with an emphasis on the history, bio-stories, patterns, images and games from the culture of Uganda in the early times of chiefdoms and kingdoms.”
The event slated to hold tomorrow seeks to promote innovation, creativity and inclusiveness as well as youth empowerment. For the last three months, Kkoolo has held a number of trainings and workshops for tailors, Illustrator’s, designers and dance choreographers as part of its post-production activities.
Tickets are available at just 10,000 and VIP 50,000 Uganda shillings.
See pictures from the casting
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